


Your Soul is Where I Made My Home

by leeraiii



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Carlos is a Good Boyfriend, Cecil Is a Good Boyfriend, Cecil is Inhuman, Cecil is a God of sorts, Cecil is protective, M/M, Typical Night Vale Weirdness, bad guys BEWARE, i dont really know how to tag things im so sorry, of the town and of Carlos
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-13
Updated: 2013-11-12
Packaged: 2018-01-01 08:47:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1042836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leeraiii/pseuds/leeraiii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Whisper a dangerous secret to someone you care about. Now they have the power to destroy you, but they won't. This is what love is.</p><p>Based on a post made by tumblr user acuriouscaseoffaith which went along the lines of: </p><p>"[...] Cecil is an omnipotent god-like person presiding over a supernatural town and we don’t even know WHERE CARLOS IS FROM [...] What if he was brought to Night Vale for protection and you KNOW if anything tried to hurt him Cecil would tear the seams of the universe apart to protect him… Can you feel hurt Carlos unconscious on the ground? Can you feel Cecil seeing him and then literally causing the stars to fall from the sky because someone had the audacity to hurt his perfect Carlos …”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Soul is Where I Made My Home

**New York, USA**  
 **2150 hours**

Several black unmarked cars skidded to a halt in front of a tall nondescript white building, disturbing the late evening silence with piercing noises before one by one their engines finally purred to a halt. It was silent for a moment before several men began filing out of the vehicles; all of them looking menacingly dangerous in their crisp black suits.

A handful of men scoured the buildings' surroundings before they shared hand signals until finally the car in the middle of the convey purred, the back door opening and closing as a solitary man dressed in a sharp dark blue suit stepped out. He was tall, and his back was straight, his chin tilted high and his steps sure, giving off the air of a man in complete control and poise.

He gave a brisk nod to the men that immediately went to flank him and together they strode towards the building, not even hesitating when a short, Asian man rushed out to meet them from within the building.

"Good evening, Lieutenant." The Asian said as the man nodded at him, falling into step with him as he flipped through a clipboard.

"What's the news, Takeuchi?" the lieutenant asked as they hurried across brightly lit hallways, people dressed in dark suits scampering about, talking into cellphones and holding unto clipboards and not giving them a second glance as they went about their respective businesses.

"The Scientist's apartment has been ransacked, sir."

The lieutenant paused mid-step, turning to grace the shorter man with a cold glare. However, Takeuchi was not to be deterred. The stare down was not enough to get the lither of the two to stop recounting the details.

"My men have found signs of forced entry, but further evidence reveals that nothing was taken from the apartment, this rules out routine break-in and small-fry burglars. The study and bedroom are both a mess, however. I think whoever entered the scientist's house was looking for something in particular, sir."

Both men didn’t have to voice out what that particular something was. “Is the research secure?” the lieutenant asked instead as they resumed walking with more purpose in every step, the seriousness of the situation finally catching up on them now that they were both properly briefed.

“I should hope so, Sir.” Takeuchi responded as he adjusted the thick-rimmed glasses perched precariously on his short nose, “I think Doctor Mendez is sensible enough to know he shouldn’t leave high-profile research lying around in an empty apartment.”

“He must be if he has managed to stay alive for so long.” The lieutenant paused, “… The Doctor is alive, isn’t he?” They entered a waiting elevator and Takeuchi pressed a series of numbers on the touchpad installed on one side of the contraption before the doors closed with a muted hiss.

“Doctor Mendez is accounted for. He was last seen tackling a sentient ball of cotton candy the size of a kangaroo this morning.”

“A what.” The lieutenant spat, incredulously and vaguely hoping he had heard incorrectly.

“Irrelevant, Sir. The directress has asked me not to idle on unrelated and insignificant details and that I should fill you in on the events that matter.”

“A sentient ball of _sweet_ is significant information.”

Takeuchi let a humorless chuckle as the elevator rumbled to a stop before a resounding ‘Ding!’ announced their arrival. The doors opened to reveal a spotless white hallway and at the end of the hallway was a single white door where two uniformed sentries were standing on both sides.

“We shouldn’t keep her waiting.”

“Of course, Takeuchi. The woman needs her beauty sleep does she not? She isn’t getting any younger as the days go by. Have you talked her into retirement yet?” The lieutenant griped as they padded towards the ominous unsuspecting door.

“Barbs like that won’t make her like you, Lieutenant.”

The man chuckled, nodding at the guards who hastily returned it with a practiced eyebrow quirk. They knocked twice, once, and then three times on the heavy oak door. It opened, revealing a lavishly furnished room. It had ivory white walls dimly lit by two chic lamps on either side of a large dark red oak desk. Two obsidian couches are aligned perpendicular to the table with a glass coffee table between them. Behind the table sat a plump aging woman dressed in a deep maroon cotton shirt underneath a cashmere cardigan. She looked like she could be anyone’s grandmother. However, her eyes were a piercing gray; cold, calculating and searching. Her lips were set on a frown behind wiry steepled fingers and her light eyebrows furrowed so thoroughly that unflattering shadows flitted about her forehead.

Any words the lieutenant had on the tip of his tongue died at the look of graveness on her face. He straightened up, immediately correcting his lax posture.

It would seem he didn’t have the luxury of friendly banter with the directress tonight.

“I was told that Vaulter has been made aware of the existence of Doctor Santiago’s son.” The Lieutenant said, fully entering the room and hearing Takeuchi shut the door behind them before he stood to flank the entrance.

The directress’ eyes glinted and if possible, the intensity of her glare tripled. Any lesser man would have pissed his pants but the lieutenant didn’t even bat an eyelash.

“There was a leak,” she finally said, releasing the tense set of her shoulders and withdrawing her glare, “Vaulter managed to plant a worm in the organization.”

“I trust this has already been dealt with.”

Her eyes snapped to meet his, affronted. “Of course,” she hissed, “We got rid of it immediately. Nevertheless, the damage has been done as I’m sure Mr. Takeuchi has thoroughly briefed you about the situation.”

“He has,” the lieutenant said, “what I want to know is how much damage control I’m going to have to deal with.”

The directress studied his face for a moment before her eyes cut to Takeuchi hovering at the back. Takeuchi took that as a request for privacy so he bowed low out of habit before leaving the room, but not before throwing the lieutenant a warning glance.

Once the door shut behind him the directress focused all of her attention on the lieutenant, “It is only a matter of time before Vaulter and his posse catch wind of Doctor Mendez’ trail. Hell, he might even be scouring the whole metropolis with his snout on the ground as we speak.”

The Lieutenant strode forward and practically threw himself on the couch, the upholstery protesting at the maltreatment. He crossed his legs before asking, “What does the bastard know so far?”

“From what I could gather, Vaulter knows Carlos Mendez is Jess Santiago’s son and that he left all of his research with him and not a pile of ashes in Los Angeles.”

The lieutenant’s eyes furrowed, “Speaking of which, if this research is so high profile why isn’t it left within the organization’s hands in the first place?”

The directress lowered her clasped hands to cross them on her desk, leaning forward as she did so. “I’m afraid your security clearance isn’t high enough to be asking those questions.”

“What are you talking about? I have the highest security clearance short of Direct- Oh.”

“Yes, however, desperate times call for desperate measures and I can’t afford you working half-blind and under-informed, that’s why I asked Takeuchi to collect you, Lieutenant. There are a few things we need to discuss.”

The Lieutenant uncrossed his legs and shifted in the couch, rapt and attentive, “What do you want me to do, Ma’am?”

The directress huffed and with a resigned tone said, “I want you in Night Vale, Lieutenant. Make sure Doctor Mendez does not get himself or the entire fucking town killed.”

“Wha-”

“Because from what I heard— The Doctor completed his father’s research and I don’t think this will bode well for anyone regardless of the circumstances.”

* * *

**2 Years Ago**  
 **Los Angeles, USA**

Carlos did not consider himself a perfectionist. Yes, it was true that he did tend to obsess over the tiniest details of an experiment or a lesson plan due weeks before, or was constantly asking questions in the pursuit of acquiring more knowledge, or to tirelessly base end results on only empirical and measureable data alone and not mar his study with assumptions, educated though they might be, but that did not mean Carlos was obsessive compulsive. No, it just meant that Carlos was a tad bit more observant than the average person and that he would have been dead if he weren’t.

Dead.

Just like his father.

He could still remember the night everything changed in his life, the night he had to run, take his father’s research just as he was instructed to “Should anything happen to me, iho, I want you to go to this address right here. They have security vaults; all of my research is there. Everything, Carlos, everything— my algorithms, my training sets, all of my sources, findings and photographs, codes. I want you to burn my apartment should anything happen, you understand Carlos? And after that, there should be everything you need in that vault. Don’t let anyone ever see this, Carlos. Don’t. _Sa awa ng Diyos._ ”

And what was Carlos to do but say ‘Yes, father’ before the man was off, running away only to die the evening after.

Carlos had been the first to find him when he came to visit the man in his apartment. He had found him lying on a pool of his rapidly congealing blood in the middle of his living room with a gunshot to the head and a handgun in his hand. Carlos had stood frozen in the doorway, horrified at the scene in front of him.

He had come to confront the man, to find out the truth about the situation. He knew his father was being monitored. He knew his father was being followed, stalked by a man that went by the name of Vaulter. He knew that his father’s research could kill him one day and that very fact explained his absence in Carlos’ life. But that still didn’t prepare him for the sight of a world-renowned scientist bleeding on his carpet, dead by his own hand.

He had committed suicide.

Carlos had wanted to vomit. He wanted to scream, to curse. He wanted to cry, bring the man back to life just to kill him himself.

But then he heard shuffling from the direction of his father’s study and that snapped him out of his self-imposed daze to notice the gun in his father’s right hand.

That’s what made his blood freeze and his heart skip a beat.

He stood there for a second, scared out of his mind before he told himself to act. ‘Remember what your father said, Carlos! Set his apartment on fire! That should be simple enough, you’re a scientist! It’s your job to set things on fire.’ Carlos told himself over his mantra of _“It isn’t suicide, it isn’t suicide. Fuck, it isn’t suicide. How didn’t I notice sooner? Shit, shit, shit!”_

Carlos was an observant young man and that was why he was still alive today.

Because whoever was in the study was his father’s killer. And it could have easily been his.

If there was anything Carlos knew concretely about his father after nights of watching him slump over a desk, pouring over books, theses and notes during his childhood—

Was that his father was _left-handed_.

When his former thesis adviser called the next day to inform him of his father’s passing Carlos was already halfway to Night Vale with a research grant and a team that suspiciously got approved overnight.

* * *

The knock on the door startled Carlos out of his memories. He shook his head, trying to clear away the grotesque image of his father’s corpse out of his mind’s eye before he could ruin his night. He chanced a glance at his watch even though he knew it couldn’t possibly be telling the right time.

“Hello?” said a sonorous voice from the other side of the door, “Delivery for a certain gorgeous scientist?”

Carlos snorted, striding towards the door and peeking through the peephole. “I wasn’t expecting a package tonight,” he said, his words bordering on a teasing tone as he saw just who was outside his door.

“Well now, that’s just a shame. It’s quite a lovely package.”

Carlos chuckled, the last of this dark mood vanishing as he deftly unlocked the door, swinging it open with poorly concealed excitement. A pair of mirthful purple eyes grinned back at him, a myriad of emotions sweeping across them, never failing to be painfully expressive. Carlos felt his grin widen, his heart fit to burst.

He lent against the door frame and crossed his arms, raising a practiced dark eyebrow at the man that stood before him. “I, however, was expecting you, Mr. Palmer.” He smirked mischievously, “You were cutting it close, too. You’re almost a minute late, Cecil.”

Cecil chuckled, climbing the last batch of stairs that separated them to stand beside the scientist. “Well, I had to stop by the florist to get you these.” He brandished a bouquet of exotic flowers with equally unusual colors, flowers Carlos could not possible identify even if he had an encyclopedia or one of his (illegal) science books in hand. But they were beautiful and Carlos stood there transfixed.

He accepted them after a moment, with the cautiousness one would have when asked to handle a baby. He made to smell them when a vine shot up from the center of the bouquet and almost bit off his nose.

“Um,” he trailed off as the vine with huge, menacing teeth retreated back into the bundle.

“Uh,” Cecil echoed. “Surprise?”

Carlos glanced at his boyfriend and then back at the bouquet, speechless.

Cecil nodded eagerly, answering the unspoken question and vaguely reminding Carlos of an excited puppy. “Those are the new imports I was talking about earlier. I figured you’d want to perform science on them, to test them- so I got you one of each.”

Carlos’ eyes snapped back to the sheepish countenance of his boyfriend and he grinned, leaning over to pop a quick kiss to his cheek, “Thank you, Cecil.”

“Anything for you, Carlos.” Cecil said blushing a lovely shade of violet as Carlos turned away, holding the bouquet of flowers a safe distance away from his person in case the wayward vine made an attempt on his life again.

“I’m going to go get my coat and put these flowers somewhere safe, okay? Then we can go eat.”

“Sure, I’ll wait out here!” he heard Cecil call as he shook his head, putting the flowers in a makeshift vase and locking it inside a cupboard.

He breathed in and leant against the counter for a moment, letting his thoughts arrange themselves into a semblance of order for a moment. It was almost two years ago when his life had taken a very drastic turn and Carlos wouldn’t have believed if someone told him he still had a shot at living a normal life.

Granted things hadn’t been simple or easy, his first year in Night Vale. Night Vale was exactly how his father had described it but not. Yes, he had been aware of the dog park even before he had set foot in the eerie dysfunctional town, but it did not contain dogs with three heads and eight glowing yellow eyes that they covered with intricately woven black hoods. In fact, dogs weren’t allowed in the park at all.

Living in Night Vale didn’t give him the time to worry about Vaulter or his father’s research. No, he was preoccupied with clocks that did not work as they were supposed to, houses that did not exist, five-headed dragons running for mayor, wheat and wheat-by products spontaneously transforming into snakes and dimensional-hopping reptiles hijacking an innocent PTA meeting.

But here he was right now, minutes away from a date with his boyfriend of almost a year.

To whom he should really be getting back to before the man went into a conniption thinking he had been eaten by the very flowers he had gotten him for their date.

He gave the cupboard one more check to see if the rabid flowers won’t be getting out soon before turning away to locate his coat. He grabbed his keys, checked that nothing was oozing from his walls and everything was off before walking out the door.

“I’m ready, Cecil. Did you want to…” he said as he put on his coat but trailed off when he was met by the tense back of his boyfriend.

“Cecil?” Carlos asked again, tentatively. “Cecil, what’s wrong?”

A snap of a twig just to the side of the lab was just the thing to set Cecil off and before Carlos could register what was happening he had a full close up view of Cecil’s broad back where numerous black tendrils of inky black darkness had manifested.

“Cecil, what-”

 **“Who’s there?!”** Cecil bellowed, and for a moment Carlos thought everything had been consumed in a vacuum. Everything was silent and nothing moved, even a leaf that had been in the middle of falling to the ground had stopped its descent. Carlos’ ears popped as he swallowed and he vaguely registered the lack of oxygen in the air. He felt the first stirrings of panic bubble up in his chest before the vacuum disappeared and he gasped, head reeling from the experience.

He ignored the searing pain at the base of his neck but could not stop the pained hiss that left his lips.

“Whoa, Cecil. It’s just me.” A voice said before a head of leather balaclava popped up from the bushes beside Carlos’ lab. “Just doing my job, boss.”

Cecil visibly relaxed, withdrawing the mass of agitated shadows and huffing out a relieved breath. “You scared us, officer.”

“Sorry,” the officer mumbled, “I didn’t know I was being … obstructive.”

Carlos stepped out from behind Cecil now that the coast was clear. “No. It’s fine, officer. Thank you for working so hard.”

The officer saluted before disappearing behind the bushes again almost as if he hadn’t been there in the first place.

“Cecil, what was that all about?” Carlos asked, placing a concerned hand on Cecil’s shoulder, “You’re kind of jumpy this evening.”

Cecil turned, his brows furrowed in an expression between concern and confusion. “I don’t know, Carlos. Something’s… out of place, somehow.”

“Out of place?”

“I’m sure it’s nothing. It’s probably because I haven’t been getting any sleep lately.”

Carlos blinked, searched Cecil’s face to see if he was hiding something from him before ultimately taking Cecil’s word for it. He knew the radio host would speak up if there was immediate danger nearby. He smiled, grabbed Cecil’s hand and twined their fingers together.

“Alright, then.” He said, squeezing the clammy hand he held in his, “Let’s go eat. I’m starving.”

**Author's Note:**

> The amazing acuriouscaseoffaith on Tumblr has given me the a-okay to write a fanfic out of a post she made a few months back. I've had this sitting on my folder for a while and I couldn't find the courage to post it. This is my first work in the fandom and the first fanfiction I've written in a while. I'm thankful for Welcome to Night Vale and the fandom for giving me the chance to start writing again. This is also un-beta'd so all of the mistakes are mine and if you spot any please inform me and I'll make the appropriate changes.


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